Roger Scruton philosopher
A constitutional rule that, for every new law imposed on the British people,
an old law should be removed from the statute book – regardless of what the
European commission says. It is evident to every normal person, and even to
some politicians, that the hitherto friendly relation between the people and
the laws that govern them has been undermined by the mad desire to regulate
most things and to criminalise everything else. Give us a break and you will
see what the British people are still able to do.
Rory Bremner satirist
I would introduce compulsory youth community and environmental projects for
18-year-olds. A six-month programme split between community projects in the
UK and abroad – like a flood relief programme in Bangladesh – it would apply
to everyone whether from state or public school and would work like
conscription but, instead of military training, school-leavers would learn
the importance of contributing to their community.
Paul Ormerod economist
I would make more explicit the connection between tax and services received by
abolishing the PAYE system. Instead of income tax being deducted by
employers at source, I would make everyone sign a cheque to pay their tax.
While it would increase administration in the first instance, it would bring
home to people what they are paying for. When you physically hand money
over, you inevitably question whether you are receiving value for money.
This system would put political pressure on public services to ensure they
deliver efficiently and would prevent the waste of public funds.
Bob Geldof campaigner
I would get a submarine, throw a rope around the island and drag it 300 miles
south. That way we would all be living in a tropical paradise.
Frank Furedi sociologist
We should get rid of the rules that prevent teachers touching children in
school and stop parents from taking photographs at plays and sports days.
Such rules just foster an atmosphere of mistrust. We’ve lost the idea that
we are all responsible for each other’s children.
David Starkey historian
I would remove everyone earning less than £25,000 a year out of the tax
system. At the moment we have a ridiculous circular system in which people
are taxed, then given their money back in tax credits. It produces the idea
of the state as provider – for something like one-third of the population.
It imprisons people we should be liberating.
Fay Weldon novelist
We should elect our public services representatives locally. Britain is too
heavily populated to manage centrally, so things need to be micro-managed.
If the head of the police is no good at their job then you should be able to
vote for a new one. This would increase the power of the people to tackle
unsatisfactory services and would mean that jobs are done with the welfare
of the community in mind rather than central government targets. It would
certainly make councils sit up and do their jobs properly.
Alan Milburn, MP
Give people the chance to control their own budget for education, old age,
health, child-care or training. For example, parents of children with
special needs could choose to receive services as they do now or instead
they could get a budget from the government worth the annual amount. That
would allow them to personalise care according to their family
circumstances. Similarly, as the postwar baby boomer generation grows old it
seems unlikely that we will tolerate a council-decided care home in the way
that previous generations have done. We are far more likely to want to live
out the end of our lives cared for in our own homes by people we choose with
budgets we control.
Jeremy Clarkson writer and broadcaster
Get rid of the M4 bus lane. Now. And for ever.
Jilly Cooper novelist
I would make penalties for cruelty to animals far harsher. People who are
cruel to animals are simply given pathetic fines rather than being
appropriately punished.
Lord Bramall former chief of the defence staff
Parliament should have the final say on when we go to war. I really don’t
think that in this day and age you can go into a full-scale war without
getting the assent of parliament. There will be some operations that you
need to keep secret but in any of the recent big campaigns – the Falklands
war, the first Gulf war, the Iraq war – there was absolutely no reason why
you couldn’t have, if you’d wanted to, tested the will of parliament. There
was a vote on Iraq, but it was on the wrong premise. If it had been on the
right premise, they might have got a different answer.
Chris Woodhead former chief inspector of schools
I would introduce an education voucher for parents with school-age children.
The voucher would pay for a state education but could be cashed in at
independent schools as payment or part-payment. It would help to make the
rhetoric of parental choice a reality; would promote new providers of
education in to the market and at a blow, would destroy the state monopoly
which has created appallingly low standards which we see in so many schools
today.
AN Wilson writer
Instead of not being allowed to park on yellow lines, I think yellow lines
should show cars where they can park. They’re so ugly that the cars would
hide them, at least temporarily. Then we should scrap all road signs and
have them redesigned by John Ruskin so that they’re not as ugly too.
Grayson Perry potter
Ban chewing gum. It makes you look dumb and makes the street ugly.
David Goodhart, editor of Prospect magazine
I think we should have a high-speed rail link. We’re the only big country in
Europe not to have one and it’s absurd that it takes six hours to get to
Glasgow. It would take a lot of strain off the roads and would relieve
pressure on London.
AA Gill writer
Close all the shops on Sundays again. I miss Sundays where I’m not doing
anything. At the moment it’s just an extended Saturday. That sense of
quietness is lost. It’s to do with the tyranny of shopping – I get bilious
that there’s no reprieve from the screaming pressure to consume.
Professor Karol Sikora cancer specialist
Inspiring people to stay well is the key to health. Keep it simple – diet,
exercise, low alcohol intake and no smoking are the messages. We pay nearly
£2,000 a year each for our National Health Service insurance.
A no-claims discount would give the incentive for people to stay healthy. Add
a bonus for good lifestyle and attendance for appropriate screening. Get the
message over that health is an individual responsibility – it’s priceless
and the best thing we’ve got.
Michael Burleigh historian
I get so annoyed by litter. It astonishes me when you’re stuck in traffic and
see someone wind down their window and just throw rubbish out onto the road.
I would introduce larger fines, dispatch more people to clear it up and
develop educational programmes so that people learn that it is socially
unacceptable to litter.
Shaun Bailey youth worker
We should teach parenting in school. One of the reasons we have problems with
young people is that they’re not used to doing anything that doesn’t involve
some payback to themselves. They don’t have parents who’ve made sacrifices
for them and that affects how they enter parenthood.
Nicholas Serota director of the Tate
I would like to see art as another “R” in the school curriculum. Visual
education is as important as being able to read and write.
Brian Cox physicist
Britain has always been brilliant at blue skies research, driven purely by
curiosity. The invention of the electric motor was not driven by someone
looking for an alternative to horses. It was Michael Faraday messing about
in a lab with magnets and wires. If you fund scientists for pure research
you get immeasurable practical benefits for society and the economy.
Frank Field MP
I would give people control over their public funds. The spend on the average
child up to the age of 19 is now £100,000. If a mother wants to stay at home
with her children for the first couple of years instead of going to work she
should be able to draw down, say, a quarter of that, in the knowledge that
the benefits she receives later will be proportionately lower.
Andrew Mawson social entrepreneur
We need to get out of short-term politics and take the long-term view. You
have to start with one high street shop and understand its inner workings
before you build a thousand. Government seems to think you can build a
thousand schools if you have the correct policy framework, without
understanding the practical inner workings of just one.
Andrew Motion poet laureate
I would like a project called WhizzGo to take off. Instead of owning your own
car, you hire small, environmentally friendly cars. We should set a target
date within the next 10 years for all vehicles to run on something other
than petrol – something green.
Sarfraz Manzoor writer and broadcaster
It should be harder to buy alcohol and drink it in public.
If we want to get rid of litter (Michael Burleigh, historian) then we should do what Ireland has done and tax plastic shopping bags into oblivion. It's worked there.
Richard, Cambridge,
I would make all politicians self employed; they could then come to the hustings individually and tell us what they intend to charge us, in total, to do the job for the next five years, if elected, this sum would be divided into sixty equal parts which would be paid per calendar month till the next election.
We would then be spared the un edifying spectacle of our esteemed representatives scrambling to get there snouts into the taxpayers trough, they could arrange and pay for there own pensions, there would be no question of redundancy payments when we kick them out for incompetence. There would be no allowances such as travel, housing, and office expenses for them to fiddle, there would in fact be no question of any further payments in cash at all, and it would I believe concentrate their minds wonderfully.
Barry Eltringham, High Spen, Tyne & Wear
Remove the dominance of the link between Government and the City which distorts government policy and the economics of the nation.
dave, chorley, UK
First priority-get out of the EU and govern ourselvesagain.I'm also against immigration,ID cards,Political Correctness,petty bureaucracy,this health and safety obsession,metrication, nonstop pressure on children,and censorship.I'm for animal welfare and rebuilding our defences.
mark taha, london,
One idea is so long overdue it is almost criminal. We should have double summertime now. 2 hours. My ancestors have enjoyed long summer evenings. Spain does now and even Brittany, but we are nearer the North Pole and should enjoy longer summer evenings. Especially when commuting takes longer and longer. Lets have it now and we will see off the threat of a recession with no problem at all. Now, now now.
Good for business?...On balance probably worth a try.
Jeffrey Smith, Beaconsfield, England
Isn't it time to start listening to voices from the past ,raising such heretical concepts as "zero-growth"? Lowering interest rates to perpetuate an economy dependent on consumer spending and in thrall to the universal suicide pact inherent in the global free market delusion is, surely, to pursue what will prove literally to be a hiding to nothing.
James Baynham, Willingham, Cambridge
I agree with Chris Woodhead re the school voucher system but I would take it even further by suggesting that home educators are also able to use funding to pay for books, outings, additional tutors.
I would abolish the educationally restrictive National Curriculum and the whole exam factory nonsense . Young people should also be able to be released from school from the age of 14 onwards to pursue vocational training...it's just plain stupid and extremely disruptive to try and keep people in school who would rather be somewhere else.
Kate, Hove,
No more overhead wires of any sort should be allowed to be put up and a fifty year plan to remove all existing overhead wires should be enforced on the power and telephone companies.
Secondly it should be illegal to leave the cellophane or paper on floral tributes left in public places.
dwight Makins, Basingstoke, Hants
Scrap the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, now and forever. They are expensive, useless and most importantly, divisive. The Welsh Assembly, for example, came into existence as a result of a narrow majority obtained in a low turn-out vote. Those who failed to vote must now be regretting their apathy!
Govern the United Kingdom from one Parliament but make sure it is governed for the good of ALL the population, not just those living in the Southeast corner
David, Formby, Liverpool, UK
We don't want 'A New Britain', we want our old, pre Nu Labour Britain back!
Edwin, Bucharest,
spot the expat
Bob, Edinburgh, Scotland
"No win no fee" litigation cases should be abolished. Anybody taking somebody else to court should bear at least some responsibility in the event that they loose their case - eg: pay £1000 or other appropriate sum towards costs. Hopefully this would reduce or eliminate trivial cases and go some way towards removing the "it's always somebody else's fault" culture we seem to be living in.
Paul Vollans, Rowney Green,
I would suggest something politically correct for personal reasons, whilst the country is blatantly nose diving into oblivion.....
Oh, sorry- So have all your 'Brightest Brits'.
Eureka dudes.
Jez W, Leeds,
I would like to see everyone in this country given the right to vote on every issue going through parliment, this could be implicated by way of a system similar to, or incorporated into cash machines. We could all then participate on the issues we feel strongly about and thus make us a truely democratic country without the fear of over zealous politicians pushing ludicrus laws through the system as they do now.
lyn, cromer, uk
Give commuters who buy any annual travel pass, free travel on all UK public transport. So you have free off peak travel anywhere. That would get rid of several million cars overnight.
timbob, london,
We don't want 'A New Britain', we want our old, pre Nu Labour Britain back!
Edwin, Bucharest,
Bob Geldof a Brit? Since when?
Pat, Plymouth, U.K.
If we have free drivers training in school young people would be encouraged to stay in school. Education is the key to a life out of poverty.
Regarding drunken yobs- they should be made to help in hospitals to see the results of their actions.
Mary Morris, peterborough,
Find out where every government minister/official lives, from the highest ranking to the lowest, then round up every homeless person; drug pusher/user; illegal refugee; non- english speaking EU immigrant looking for housing/work; out of work domestic person who wants to work but can't find a job; out of work domestic person who doesn't want to work because they're too lazy; street yob/hooligan; hard up pensioner and tired-out-struggling-to-make-ends-meet single parent - and herd them all towards above mentioned goverment ministers and officials places of abode and tell them to camp in the grounds/gardens/garages/porches etc., and behave as they normally do, until said government ministers and officials have 'had enough' of what the average Brit seems to have to put up with every day. Changes will follow for sure!
Aside from that, all above suggestions are brilliant - except for the Bob Geldof one - that's just silly! Britain would never manage 300 miles, its sinking too fast...
Jean, Hague, Netherlands
Cars - moving or parked - are choking our towns and cities and making them ugly. Yet people have great incentives to travel by car because - once bought - it is so cheap, while public transport is expensive and not comprehensive or frequent enough. The obvious answer is to bring in congestion charging as a matter of urgency, with all the profits going to improve public transport and keep its price down.
Of the "celebrity" comments, David Starkey's, on the absurdity of the government taxing the poor with one hand and handing it back with the other, is by far the best.
Barry, Wallington, UK
Massive improvement at a stroke! Make ALL schools organise a rota of children to pick up litter in the school grounds and surrounding streets as is done in Canada. Result: negligible litter - people who have to pick it up don't drop it.
Antony Moore, Stafford,
Get rid of Gordon Brown.
Bring discipline back to the classroom (badly behaved children sometimes need to be forcibly shown their are consequences to their actions)
No tax up to £25k (great idea David Starkey)
NO PERMINANT IMMIGRATION, 12 month renewable work permits that don’t allow your 100 closest relatives can all join you here.
Complete separation of religion from the state, ending any threat of loony bingo worshippers trying to force Sharia law onto people who couldn’t care less about the ramblings of a 1500 year old paedophile
Death penalty for people proposing PC laws
Stop donating money to countries that don’t need it....£825million to India, who can afford a larger standing army, space programme and nuclear weapons, they don’t need our money for schools and hospitals WE do!
Andrew W, Chester,
We should scrap the nonsensical arrangement called 'British Summertime'. It serves no discernible purpose, but instead confuses and irritates everyone in equal measures.
While we're about it, we could also abolish the CBI.
Josie, Leeds, West Yorks
1. Get out of the EU as soon as possible.
2. Rejoin EFTA (if it still exists).
3. Get rid of Gordon Brown and his bunch of incompetents.
4. Stop poking our military nose into Iraq, Afghanistan etc.
5. Bring in real penalties for crime.
6. Put an immediate stop to mass immigration.
7. Try to restore some sense of national pride in today's young people.
I could go on but life's too short to list all the hundreds of ways we could improve Great Britain.
Sam Samuells, Stoke Bruerne,
Give business rates payers a vote in local elections.
Employers are massively undervalued in the UK, yet they provide stability for many families through continuous paid employment, set standards of conduct, train the young, are the mainstay of economically viable neighbourhoods, provide social and recreational facilities, and many support the wider community through financial support or 'in kind' involvement with schools and community organisations.
MarkS, Leeds,
Bangladesh has enough problems without having to accommodate our 18 year olds. I suggest we stop depending on the great and good to run the country.
Nick Noble, Southsea, Hants
Britain's brightest people eh? Bob Geldof thinks the country floats!!!
Ian Whyte, Newcastle,
flat tax
as Alex proposes ,
One tax rate , one threshhold above which no benefifs or "credits "
a taxpayers account , so we know what we are entitled to.
the unemployed to receive training and education or directed labour in order to receive pay - hence no unemployment
an end to positive discrimination , if you need 10 firefighters and 100 apply the 10 most suitable are recruited.
restore the notion that we are to be served by the auhorities whom we install and we have an obligation to respect their decisions for the good of us all .
stop using the word green to indicate that something is good , it also means naive ,foolish , inexperienced , simple( as in idiot ).
jon gale, lymington, ENGLAND
we should bring back the death penalty then we dont have to fork out millions keeping scumbags in jail.
kevin morrison, st.helens, uk
A flat rate tax system as they have in Hong Kong where I worked for a number of years-so simple and transparent. The lower taxes acts to make people more productive and gives them a sense that they are working for themselves and not for the socialist government we have over here.
Unfortunately the feeling is that in the UK we are being stolen from- not taxed fairly with bright clever families being robbed to keep the social services employed to give out money to all and sundry and all that it implies.
Alex Lee, Carshalton, Surrey
Little wonder that the UK is in such a mess when the great and good come up with answers like these. Joe public is more concerned about immigration than anything else.
It is not politically correct to mention immigration so powerful, influential and financially secure people ignore it and let the rest of us suffer the consequences.
Kevin Herbert, Greater Manchester, UK
Please ban eating on the hoof in our streets-take aways etc!
Litter will then become virtually non existent!
Agree with Jilly Cooper about cruelty to animals, please persue the talk about the excessive breeding of dogs and cats , which makes this time of the year a nightmare for rescue organisations, re dumped unwanted pets etc!
All animal welfare must be re-examined.
Mrs Maggie Snook, Wareham, Dorset UK
May I ask when Jeremy Clarkson, AA Gill and Jilly Cooper became some of the country's brightest people? Their answers say it all. A potentially interesting exercise rendered farce.
James, London, UK
Get rid of Gordon Brown?
Toby Fella, Bucharest, Romania